Neal Stephenson, J. Frederick George: The Cobweb (Paperback, 2005, Spectra)
Paperback, 448 pages
English language
Published May 31, 2005 by Spectra.
From his triumphant debut with Snow Crash to the stunning success of his latest novel, Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson has quickly become the voice of a generation. In this now-classic political thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a savagely witty, chillingly topical tale set in the tense moments of the Gulf War.When a foreign exchange student is found murdered at an Iowa University, Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks finds that his investigation extends far beyond the small college town--all the way to the Middle East. Shady events at the school reveal that a powerful department is using federal grant money for highly dubious research. And what it's producing is a very nasty bug. Navigating a plot that leads from his own backyard to Washington, D.C., to the Gulf, where his Army Reservist wife has been called to duty, Banks realizes he may be the only person who can stop …
From his triumphant debut with Snow Crash to the stunning success of his latest novel, Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson has quickly become the voice of a generation. In this now-classic political thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a savagely witty, chillingly topical tale set in the tense moments of the Gulf War.When a foreign exchange student is found murdered at an Iowa University, Deputy Sheriff Clyde Banks finds that his investigation extends far beyond the small college town--all the way to the Middle East. Shady events at the school reveal that a powerful department is using federal grant money for highly dubious research. And what it's producing is a very nasty bug. Navigating a plot that leads from his own backyard to Washington, D.C., to the Gulf, where his Army Reservist wife has been called to duty, Banks realizes he may be the only person who can stop the wholesale slaughtering of thousands of Americans. It's a lesson in foreign policy he'll never forget.From the Trade Paperback edition.
I was looking for a fun escape and this did the trick. My last Stephenson romp, until he writes another one for me.
I thoroughly enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Zodiac and Snow Crash, and loved The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon. I completely & totally bounced off of the Baroque novels. I put the first one down at about page 300, only to have a friend tell me that "it really picks up after about page 400". Sorry, nothing should be that bloated.
The two novels that he wrote with his uncle, and published under the name Stephen Bury, are The Cobweb and Interface. I really enjoyed both these books when I originally read them, and when I was putting together a survival pack of paperbacks to read during our move, I put them in. I just finished The Cobweb, and loved it again. It has a suspenseful plot involving biological warfare, academic shenanigans with grant money, and CIA/FBI political infighting. I like me some suspense, but what makes me love this book are the …
I thoroughly enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Zodiac and Snow Crash, and loved The Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon. I completely & totally bounced off of the Baroque novels. I put the first one down at about page 300, only to have a friend tell me that "it really picks up after about page 400". Sorry, nothing should be that bloated.
The two novels that he wrote with his uncle, and published under the name Stephen Bury, are The Cobweb and Interface. I really enjoyed both these books when I originally read them, and when I was putting together a survival pack of paperbacks to read during our move, I put them in. I just finished The Cobweb, and loved it again. It has a suspenseful plot involving biological warfare, academic shenanigans with grant money, and CIA/FBI political infighting. I like me some suspense, but what makes me love this book are the characters, and the observations about people and cultures.
Part of the action takes place in a fictionalized Ames, Iowa. It's told from the perspective of a sheriff's deputy, Clyde, who becomes friends with a foreign grad student, and is seeing some odd things happening, all while dealing with his wife being called up by the Army reservers and caring for their baby. His campaign for sheriff is very funny, as is juggling stake-outs and a baby.
The rest of the action is in Washington, D.C., told by Betsy Vandeventer. She's an analyst at the CIA, and she "exceeds her task" and spots the games being played with money going to Iraq for agricultural assistance. She's a nice girl from Idaho, who is trying to shake off some of the nice. I kinda love that one of the main characters in the book is a young woman who is overweight.
One of the scenes I love is when a mucky-muck from D.C. meets with Clyde at a restaurant in Ames. Clyde is very uncomfortable when Hennessy ignores the "Please wait to be seated" sign, and walks over to a big booth that's out of earshot of the other diners. Clyde feels that everyone is looking at the 2 of them taking up a booth that should be saved for a bigger party. They happen to be discussing a plot for biological weapons, but that doesn't mean you should be rude Another scene is Hennessy managing to take control over someone else's meeting in Washington, by being quieter than anyone else. It's delicious observation of people's behavior.
The book is set just before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and was published in 1996.
Cobweb originally appeared as by Stephen Bury, which is Neal Stephenson and his uncle J. Frederick George. It is reminiscent of Snow Crash in its humour and its development of unwilling protagonists who Gain Stature and its fascination with simple but cunning gadgets as well as huge machines (there are extremely large ships in Snow Crash and The Diamond Age and a very big aircraft in Cobweb), and also western Asia (the Sumerian bit in Snow Crash, Vakhan Turks in Cobweb). The plot shows distinct signs of being deliberately complicated towards the end as the authors tie it up in more and more knots, but then, it’s a technothriller and they do that. Now there’s a point.
It is a technothriller and not noticeably Science Fiction, so is the reader’s perception of it different other than that the perception of reading a technothrilller is that t.t.s are …
Cobweb originally appeared as by Stephen Bury, which is Neal Stephenson and his uncle J. Frederick George. It is reminiscent of Snow Crash in its humour and its development of unwilling protagonists who Gain Stature and its fascination with simple but cunning gadgets as well as huge machines (there are extremely large ships in Snow Crash and The Diamond Age and a very big aircraft in Cobweb), and also western Asia (the Sumerian bit in Snow Crash, Vakhan Turks in Cobweb). The plot shows distinct signs of being deliberately complicated towards the end as the authors tie it up in more and more knots, but then, it’s a technothriller and they do that. Now there’s a point.
It is a technothriller and not noticeably Science Fiction, so is the reader’s perception of it different other than that the perception of reading a technothrilller is that t.t.s are generally a lightweight cheap-thrill ride? Cobweb doesn’t seem to be as it has proper character development and all that. Also you can tell it isn’t that nasty as at the end when Clyde, the sheriff who gets caught up in matters of state security, faces down the villains aboard a cargo aircraft, rather than killing them by any method including chucking them overboard, he and his Russian buddy are able to subdue them, tie them up and hand them over to the authorities when they’ve landed. Then he goes back into the plane and defuses the bomb on board. This book is in my humble opinion smarter than your average techno-thriller and tells you more than you wanted to know about the Midwest and wrestling.
